摘要: |
This report presents the National Park Service's (NPS) economic analysis of the alternative Bighorn Canyon National Recreational Area (BICA) Personal Watercraft (PWC) regulations under consideration. The report is organized as follows. Section 1 describes the reason for the regulation and the current and proposed regulations at BICA. Baseline visitation, environmental conditions, and economic activity in BICA are described in Section 2. The local economic impacts on the region surrounding BICA are summarized in Section 3. Section 4 describes the methodology for assessing the impacts of the alternatives on social welfare and presents a benefit-cost analysis of the regulatory alternatives. Section 5 provides an analysis of the regulatory alternatives impacts on small businesses. Uncertainties are addressed in Section 2 for visitation, Section 3 for regional economic impacts, and Section 5 for the alternatives impacts on businesses. In addition, Appendix A describes the principles of economic impact analysis, and Appendix B includes a detailed theoretical discussion of the types of benefits and costs associated with PWC restrictions in national parks and the methods used in their estimation. |